Implementing a new senior secondary curriculum in Hong Kong: instructional leadership practices and qualities of school principals

This paper attempts to identify the leadership practices and qualities of school principals engaged in implementing a curriculum reform in Hong Kong. Based on interview data of school principals, this paper shows that the types of instructional leadership practices that school principals adopt and the contextual conditions in which these practices occur are key factors explaining the differential effectiveness of implementation efforts. Six efficacious instructional leadership practices and two contextual conditions critical to their development were identified. This paper reconceptualises instructional leadership as a collective and transformational endeavour, functioning in communities of practice to support school development at different levels.     

Distributed leadership of school curriculum change: an integrative approach

Since its inception in 1999, the distributed leadership framework of Spillane, Halverson, and Diamond [2004. “Towards a Theory of Leadership Practice: A Distributed Perspective.” Journal of Curriculum Studies 36 (1): 3–34. doi:10.1080/0022027032000106726] has supported research into leadership and change in schools. Whilst the conceptual integrity of the framework is sound, research based upon its premises has attracted some criticism. The research has had a narrowed focus which has not generally reflected the inseparability of the elements of the framework and the situation within which leadership is enacted. In addition, it often fails to account for the complexity of critical elements of the environment such as micropolitics. This position paper proposes a reconfiguration of the distributed leadership framework as a research framework in response to this critique. The paper asserts that this new perspective that is presented is able to respond to the critique through an integrated approach that encompasses situation, social distribution and task enactment and which supports an integrated approach to research methodology. This adapted framework has the potential to more fully support research design that is actuality holistic and embedded in the context.     

高中综合学习课程开发的实践研究

本文在三年的教学实践和综合课程开发理论学习的基础上 ,运用具体实例分析了综合学习课程的三个特点 ,介绍了综合学习课程的模块化“混合式”课程组织方式及其特点 ,以及综合学习的主要方式。     

Building an indigenous learning community through lesson study: challenges of secondary school science teachers

Universalists believe that indigenous knowledge should not be studied since it excludes non-indigenous people. A qualitative method was used to explore the impact of lesson study on a science teacher at a secondary school. The research indicated that lesson study has positive impacts on teachers professionally by improving their science content knowledge, developing their teaching strategy and skill, enhancing their interest in working collaboratively, and creating a sense of an indigenous paradigm. The four categories of impact are interrelated and mutually influential. Through a lesson study, a relationship of mutual trust is well established in an indigenous learning community.     

中职学校艺术教育课程在课程体系中地位初探

"艺术教育课程"是中职学校美育最主要的载体和最有效的途径,是培养德智体美全面发展的社会主义现代化建设需要的高素质技能人才必不可少的。目前中职学校艺术教育课程在课程体系中地位不高,笔者从中职学校中了解艺术教育课程的地位现状,从观念偏颇、体系杂乱、基础资源缺失等原因进行分析,并提出提高中职学校艺术教育课程地位的思考。     

Core competences and scientific literacy: the recent reform of the school science curriculum in China

ABSTRACT

China initiated a new round of science curriculum reform in 2017. Using the tripartite curriculum framework (including policy, programmatic, and classroom curriculum), we introduce and analyse China’s policy curriculum and programmatic curriculum for science in primary school and senior high school, and describe the potential problems hindering the translation of these curricula into the classroom curriculum. We first identify the multiple aims of different stakeholders in science education, some of which influence the science policy curriculum. Then, we present the major changes in how the programmatic curriculum meets the policy curriculum. However, due to extracurricular factors, the current science curriculum reform may not unfold as expected. We end with a discussion of the three major characteristics of the revision process of science curriculum standards in China, some of which might inform the global community of science education.     

Understanding the leadership qualities of a head of department coping with curriculum changes in a Hong Kong secondary school

Little relevant research examining the leadership patterns of heads of department (HoD) coping with curriculum changes is found within the Chinese context. This article presents an exploratory case study which delineates the leadership qualities exhibited by a HoD as he overcomes the difficulties typically confronted in the process of school-based curriculum development (SBCD) in a Hong Kong secondary school. The findings showed that the challenges faced by the HoD included: (1) teachers' low receptivity of SBCD; (2) teachers' limited time and expertise in SBCD; and (3) a need for more effective collaboration in the department. The essential leadership patterns detected were: (1) personal charisma; (2) shared vision building; (3) empowerment of teachers; (4) changing beliefs and enhancing the capacity of teachers; and (5) fostering collegiality among teachers. This study suggests that unless the HoD is committed to making an innovation a priority, the potential of teachers to contribute to any curriculum change may not be realised.     

普通高中物理课程改革的研究报告

由于学科课程目标的“划一化” ,使学生的个体差异问题得不到解决 ,学生的认知、情感 ,知识和能力的协调发展难以实现 ,本文着眼于物理学科课程结构改革 ,进行物理学科的分层次教学 ,使不同层次的学生都得到良好的发展     

Towards truly inclusive science education: a case study of successful curriculum innovation in a special school

The paper provides a first person account of participant evaluation research of curriculum innovation in a school serving students with profound learning difficulties. It describes how the aspirations of the school leadership team to introduce science, combined with advisory support, overcame the initial anxiety of teaching staff about teaching an unfamiliar subject. The staff position was transformed and they gave a very positive evaluation of their experiences of teaching science, due to the impact of the subject on their students. The introduction of a distinct and inclusive model of science into the curriculum was ultimately found to have significant benefits for both students and staff.     

Exploring the boundary between school science and everyday knowledge in primary school pedagogic practices

This paper explores the different ways that primary school teachers in Uganda navigate the boundary between school science and everyday knowledge in the context of a centrally mandated curriculum innovation. The paper is based on a study of the pedagogic practices of 16 teachers in eight Ugandan primary schools that were selected on the basis of having a track record of either high or low academic achievement in the public primary school‐leaving examination. The official primary school curriculum in Uganda prescribes that science be taught in an integrated form, including integration between science subject knowledge and everyday knowledge. The strategies that teachers in the study adopted in relating science to everyday knowledge was a key feature that differentiated between pedagogic practices in the high‐performing and low‐performing schools. In high‐performing schools, teachers recruited everyday knowledge as a resource for learning science as a specialised discourse; whereas in the low‐performing schools, acquiring everyday knowledge was viewed as an end in itself. The paper, then, considers the implications of differences in teachers' pedagogic strategies for the kinds of knowledge to which learners are given access.     

高中新课改实验教师网络远程培训案例探究

以2010年贵州省普通高中课改实验教师远程培训项目为研究案例,深入分析了教师网络远程培训的优势和存在的问题,提出了在新课改背景下开展教师网络远程培训的建议。     

中小学综合课程实施的困境及对策分析

新一轮基础教育课程改革在改革课程结构方面有了重大的突破,提出了综合课程这一新的课程形态.新生事物的发展必然不会一帆风顺,综合课程在其发展过程中遭遇了理论研究与实践应用两方面的困境,但这并不是不可逾越的鸿沟,而是新生事物向前迈进的必经之路,只要经过适当的调适,提出相应对策,它反而会成为综合课程前进的动力之源.     

Curricular orientations,experiences, and actions: Graduate students in science and mathematics fields work in urban high school classrooms

We examined curricular orientations that graduate students in science and mathematics fields held as they experienced urban high‐school science and mathematics classrooms. We analyzed how these educators (called Fellows) saw themselves, students, teachers, schools, education, and the sense they made of mathematics and science education in urban, challenging settings in the light of experiences they brought with them into the project and experiences they designed and engaged in as they worked in classrooms for 1 or 2 years. We used Schubert's (Schubert (1997) Curriculum: Perspective, paradigm, and possibility. New Jersey: Prentice‐Hall, Inc.) four curricular orientations—intellectual traditionalism, social behaviorism, experientialism, and critical reconstructionism—to analyze the Fellows' journals, and to explore ways in which the positions they portrayed relative to curriculum, instruction, assessment, social justice, discipline, student involvement, teacher's role, subject‐matter nature, etc., shaped and were shaped by who they were before and during their classroom work. Our qualitative analysis revealed various relationships including: experientialists engaged in more open‐ended projects, relevant to students, with explicit connections to everyday‐life experiences; social behaviorists paid more attention to designing “good” labs and activities that taught students appropriate content, led them through various steps, and modeled good science and mathematics; and critical reconstructionists hyped up student knowledge and awareness of science issues that affect students' lives, such as asthma and HIV epidemic. Categorizing orientations and identifying relationships between experiences, actions, and orientations may help us articulate and explicate goals, priorities, and commitments that we have, or ought to have, when we work in urban classrooms. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 1–26, 2009     

新课程改革下的高中政治教学方法

伴随着新课程改革的推进,必将进一步推动教学方法的改革。因此高中政治教师必须转变思想,更新教育观念,掌握和运用多种教学方法和技巧,充分调动学生的学习积极性,进而提高学生的综合能力和素质。本文将结合教学实例,从导入新课的方法、培养学生合作探索学习方式的课堂教学方法、课堂结尾的方法等三方面初步探讨在新课程改革下的高中政治教学方法。     

A retrospective view of a study of middle school science curriculum materials: Implementation,scale‐up,and sustainability in a changing policy environment

This article provides an extended, comprehensive example of how teachers, schools, districts, and external factors (e.g., parental pressure and policy mandates) shape curriculum research in the U.S. It retrospectively examines how three different middle school curriculum units were implemented and scaled‐up in a large, diverse school system. The curriculum materials were cognitively based, hands‐on, guided inquiry units; each focused on a different “big idea” in science. The units met some criteria for instructional strategies rated by the Project 2061 Curriculum Analysis. Using evidence‐based decisions, two of the units were found to be effective and equitable, and went to scale, but one was not effective. However, the course of scale‐up was also affected by a changing policy climate, and proceeded in unpredictable ways, with small scale effects not found at large scale, and experienced teachers less effective than inexperienced teachers. Four years after funding ended, none of the units were sustained within the school district. The interactions between the demands of the units and of the school district's policy environment suggests reasons why this occurred, despite evidence that two of the units were successful with diverse learners. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 305–332, 2012     

论综合课程教师教学技能与素养的建构——以科学课程教师为例

师资问题是关系到课程改革成败的关键。当前,初中综合课程已经在全国各试验区开设,但随着课程改革的进行,师资问题尤其是教师的教学技能与素养已经成为制约综合课程改革的"瓶颈"性因素。综合课程教师的教学技能由一般教学技能和特殊教学技能共同组成,它的提高需要教师在长期的教学实践中不断发展。     

History,identity, and the school curriculum in Northern Ireland: an empirical study of secondary students' ideas and perspectives

This study reports results of an empirical investigation of secondary students' conceptions of history and identity in Northern Ireland. Interviews with 253 students from a variety of backgrounds indicate that they initially identify with a wide range of historical themes, but that these identifications narrow as they study the required national curriculum during the first 3 years of secondary school. Often, they draw selectively from the formal curriculum in order to support their developing identification with the history of their own political/religious communities. This process is most apparent among boys, at predominantly Protestant schools, and in schools located in areas of conflict. These findings suggest that to address history's role in ongoing community conflict, educators may need to challenge more directly the beliefs and assumptions held by students of varied backgrounds, as well as to provide a clearer alternative to the partisan histories encountered elsewhere.     

Philosophic stance of secondary school science teachers,curriculum experiences,and children's understanding of science: Some preliminary findings

This study sought to establish whether teachers' views about the nature of science and scientific inquiry are reflected in their choice and design of learning experiences and, therefore, are significant influences on children's understanding of science. Even those teachers who hold clear and coherent views about science do not plan laboratory-based activities consistently in relation to those views, concentrating instead on the immediate concerns of classroom management and on concept acquisition and development.     

论高等师范与中学教学教改的磨合与接轨

师范学院教育学类课程的改革,首先要实行从纯理论讲述到以实践、研讨活动为主的方向性转移、变化教法和学法。适当增加“教学技能训练”、“中学教学教材研讨”、“中教前沿动态信息”等内容,确立以师范性为特征的学习观念,教学必须借助于大量的训练、研究和教学实习活动。